Commercial real estate’s top ranks became less diverse over the past year, marking the first decline in executive diversity since Bisnow began tracking the industry in 2020.
Women and people of color both lost ground among executives at the industry’s largest firms, as companies reassessed diversity programs amid increased legal and political scrutiny of corporate DEI practices.
Diversity Falls Across CRE’s Biggest Firms
Bisnow analyzed 99 of the largest commercial real estate companies this year, one fewer than in the previous analysis following the merger of AvalonBay Communities and Equity Residential.
Women held 324 C-suite positions, down from 344 a year earlier. Their share of executive positions fell from 20.79% to 19.52%.
Executives of color held 178 C-suite positions, compared with 185 previously, while their share declined from 14.79% to 14.44%.
Lenders experienced one of the largest declines. People of color accounted for 19.49% of lender C-suite positions, down from 22.1%, while women’s representation fell from 31.09% to 28.88%.
Board representation also declined for people of color. They held 139 seats, compared with 158 last year, with their share falling from 20.79% to 19.52%.
Women held 236 board seats, down from 250. Their overall percentage nevertheless edged up from 32.89% to 33.15% because the total number of board seats in the analysis also declined.
Companies Are Reconsidering DEI Hiring Practices
The changes come as companies face greater scrutiny over how they approach diversity in hiring and promotion.
Employment attorneys and diversity advocates cited by Bisnow said some companies have become more cautious about practices such as deliberately seeking diverse candidate pools or considering race or gender in hiring decisions.
That caution has also affected corporate boards. PeopleReturn found that 11.3% of S&P 500 companies had policies considering gender, racial and ethnic diversity in board nominations this year, down from 23% last year and nearly half in 2024.
The legal environment is a major factor. The Trump administration has pursued challenges to certain corporate DEI practices, including through the False Claims Act in cases involving federal contractors. The Justice Department reached settlements with IBM and Deloitte this year totaling $38.5 million over allegations involving employment practices.
Employment lawyers say companies are now reviewing existing programs more carefully to determine whether their policies could create legal exposure.
Lenders and Brokerages See Steeper Drops
The pullback has been particularly visible among financial institutions and brokerage firms. Wells Fargo ended a policy requiring diverse candidate slates for initial interviews for senior roles. Its C-suite went from five executives of color and four women among 16 executives to three executives of color and three women among 14.
Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, which had previously ranked among the more diverse companies in the analysis, also recorded declines for a second consecutive year.
Fannie Mae now has three executives of color and three women in its C-suite, compared with four and five, respectively, in 2025.
Freddie Mac has three executives of color and two women, down from four and three.
Brokerages also lost ground. People of color represented 10.92% of 238 brokerage C-suite positions, down from 11.35%, while women accounted for 31.51%, compared with 34.93%.
Some Companies Are Changing the Language
Companies are not necessarily abandoning inclusion efforts altogether, but many are changing how they describe them.
The 2026 ULI Global Real Estate Workforce Survey found that 38% of commercial real estate firms had changed the terminology surrounding their diversity programs, often moving away from the term DEI.
At the same time, 71% reported no change in spending on inclusivity-related efforts during the 12 months ending in January.
Employment attorneys say changing the terminology does not necessarily change the legal implications of a program. Companies still need to examine what their policies actually do, rather than simply replacing the word “diversity” with terms such as inclusion or belonging.
The result is a CRE industry navigating a more cautious environment around diversity initiatives, while the latest data shows that women and people of color have already lost ground in the executive ranks.
